Cosmetic Dentistry: Getting Your Dream Smile
Cosmetic Dentistry: Getting Your Dream Smile
The Dirty Secrets of Invisalign
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What should you look out for when it comes to cheap clear aligners or Invisalign? In this episode, Dr. David Eshom delves into the dirty secrets of Invisalign and what patients should be aware of when shopping for a dentist or even just a company to get straighter teeth. Dr. Eshom also indulges on what you SHOULD look for in an Invisalign provider and what cases Invisalign can work with. Find out how to figure out the perfect Invisalign provider for you and whether you are a good candidate for Invisalign!
Key words: cosmetic dentistry, FAQ, porcelain veneers, Bioclear uveneers, minimally invasive cosmetic dentistry, dental cost, Invisalign, best cosmetic dentist in San Diego, minimally invasive smile makeover, San Diego dentist
If you have any questions about cosmetic dentistry or your own smile that you would like us to answer, click the link to this form where you can ask us your burning questions: https://forms.gle/s4Y9WLjHWni1BeeE9
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Dr. David Eshom DDS
Info@EshomDDS.com
Instagram: @david_eshom_dds
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dr.eshom
Website: https://www.eshomdds.com/
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Welcome to getting your dream smile with cosmetic chemistry. This is where we discuss and help patients get what they want in a smile while being totally informed. Whether it is porcelainers, bonding, whitening, or invisalign, you will find out what is best for your situation. Everything you should know, where and who to see, and all the costs involved. Stay tuned.
SPEAKER_02Hi everyone, welcome back to Getting Your Dream Smile with Cosmetic Dentistry. I'm Sabrina, your host for today, and today I'll be talking with Dr. Esham about the dirty secrets of Invisalign. Dr. Esham has been practicing cosmetic dentistry for 25 years and is credentialed by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He loves to inform the public about the best ways to achieve your best smile. So let me introduce to you Dr. David Esham.
SPEAKER_01Hi Sabrina.
SPEAKER_02Hello.
SPEAKER_01It is so good to be back.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's great.
SPEAKER_01We've been away a little while. You've been busy being interviewed by dental schools, getting accepted.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And without you, I can't run this podcast. So I had to wait for your accessibility. So thank you for being accessible, and it's good to be back. But today's topic is about Invisalign, but it's also about helping the general public know about Invisalign and know the things to watch for. And so that's kind of our topic today. And with a lot of things with cosmetic dentistry, and Invisalign is part of cosmetic dentistry because me being a minimally invasive cosmetic dentist, one of the first things I go to with a patient in terms of improving their smile is to talk about Invisalign and moving their teeth into a great position so they can have a great smile. But unfortunately, a lot of times patients think that Invisalign is what does the work. But the company Invisalign is just a lab, and it's really the doctor that needs to do the work in order for you to have a great case.
SPEAKER_02That's interesting that you say that because I think when I was also looking for Invisalign, I always thought that, oh well, any provider would be okay because it's just Invisalign and everyone's going to get the same trades. But now that you say that, I think it's important that you mention the experience of the doctor. So how is important is it for the doctor to have experience with Invisalign and explain why it's not just like one doctor can do the same thing?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, that's that's the thing, and then that's what I want our listeners and our viewers to know is that you don't want to look for the cheapest Invisalign. I mean, I could just say that flat out. You don't want to look because someone who's going to do your Invisalign cheap either is inexperienced or they have ulterior motives in terms of uh having you come into the office and then wanting to do other dentistry on you after you become their Invisalign provider. And what's really important in an Invisalign provider is not the fact that they're using Invisalign, but how they
The Problem with Cheap Online Aligners
SPEAKER_01use Invisalign and what they know about it. But before I guess we get to that, I I want to talk a little bit about this cheap Invisalign or Cheap Clear Braces concept because there's other companies besides Invisalign that provide clear liners and they kind of make the public think that clear liners are the same thing as Invisalign.
SPEAKER_02So, what kind of companies are out there and what should patients be aware of and know about these companies and how it's different from actually going to a doctor and an Invisalign provider?
SPEAKER_01Well, the the two ones that uh come to mind, and I don't mean to say anything bad about uh people or companies, but I'll just say what the truth is. Um, you know, one of one of the uh one of them is called Smile Direct Club. Um and with Smile Direct Club, you know, you get clear liners and they send them to you and they give you as many as you want and they make it easy, but really there's not a doctor that is intimately overseeing your case. So a doctor may see it quickly after they do your scan and look at your computer models, but after that, there's really no doctor to tell you when something isn't going right and or maybe what you're doing wrong at home. The other problem with Smile Direct Club is they don't have anything that they put on your teeth like Invisalign does, which are called attachments or buttons. And so without the attachments or the buttons, the tray slips off your teeth, and so the movements don't won't be complete, especially rotating movements won't completely turn. And then the other thing about Small Direct Club is they don't have a way to thin your teeth, so a lot of times people have crowding on the lower, and rather than extract teeth, um we actually thin the teeth so that they all fit. And with Smile Direct Club, that does not happen either. And so the last thing that isn't checked with Smile Direct Club is your bite. So if you have a lot of crowding, they're going to expand your arch, and then when your arches fit together, or they try to fit together, they won't fit together, and so they don't have a way of fitting your bite. So not to say anything bad, but that is the indeed truth about no attachments, no IPR, and no doctor, live doctor supervision if you're having problems. And so here in my office, we get a lot of people coming from Smile Direct Club because they've worn all their trays, and then they get to the end, and either the teeth haven't moved, and so they're not happy, or their bite isn't right, and so they're not feeling comfortable.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I remember one patient that we had, and I had talked to her, and she said that she did one of these programs because she was, you know, pinching the pennies and she wanted to keep a cheap option open, and she went through with it, and it took a while, and then she ended up not liking her smile. And remember, she came come to us after spending so much money on these different cheaper options when she could have saved up front just going to an Invisalign provider who actually has experience and provide good services and has the reviews, and then the also the number of cases to back up their knowledge.
SPEAKER_01Right. Another company
The Problem with Companies Other Than Invisalign
SPEAKER_01that uh the name pops up is when you go into maybe an Invisalign consult with a dentist, is a lot of dentists say, Well, you know, I'm not gonna use Invisalign, I'm gonna use a company called ClearCorrect. And they are indeed a Clearliner company, and they indeed do have attachments, so that's good, and then they do have IPR abilities so that you the thinning of the teeth ability so you get crowding done, but their attachments are very um basic and old, meaning they're just rectangular, they don't have any that are made to rotate your tooth more accurately. Um, and then they also don't send you all your trays at once, and so when you get done with one set of trays, you have to ask for the next set of trays that they send up to you. And so trying to get a correction or a new refinement or have trouble with the tooth not moving and then having it come back, it can take a long, long time. And so the service and the accuracy of the company that's making the aligners is really, really important. And so not having attachments or not having you know up-to-date current type of services that get you your trays quick is very important when you're going through a clear aligner treatment, and so that's why I use Invisalign because they get us the trays, they have the technology to move the teeth, and then my patients don't get frustrated at the end because of that. So, um, you know, so the that is important to watch out for when you're when you're kind of shopping Invisalign. You know, I understand I'm the same way, you want to get something as cheap as you can, but you have to make sure it's the same thing you're getting, meaning, you know, you're not getting Invisalign. Oh, it's a smile direct clip. Oh, you're not getting Invisalign, it's clear correct. Well, it's not the same as Invisalign, and so consequently, your experiences very well may not turn out the way you want them to turn out.
SPEAKER_02I think that's a great point to bring up because I didn't even know that there are other types of clear aligners that doctors can use, but that Invisalign is very different from those, and Invisalign helps the patient move their teeth. And so, in terms of that, also when the patients do find the correct Invisalign provider, how do they know they're in the right office or that they're getting proper treatment and the doctor is experienced?
Beware of these Invisalign Providers!
SPEAKER_01Well, um, again, you know, uh along those lines, okay. So, say you do get to an Invisalign provider, and so they're not switching out to a cheaper, more generic, less uh accurate system, you have to watch, okay, they're providing me cheap Invisalign, so what what's the catch here? And what the catch is usually is um with one uh provider that I know of here in my area, is they bring you in for cheap Invisalign, but anytime you need more trays, there's a big upcharge. And so a lot of times you don't finish your Invisalign treatment with the first set of trays, and so there's a charge that you get for a second set of trays, and it's not uncommon to have a third set of trays, and so you have to watch for upcharges, and then this same office makes you have four cleanings a year, and their cleanings aren't inexpensive, so they get their money in a different way and kind of like um use Invisalign as a lost leader to do other things or to charge you in a different
Finding the RIGHT Invisalign Provider
SPEAKER_01way. So you want to go to someone that provides you Invisalign, everything is about Invisalign, gives you a fair fee and know and knows what they're doing. So that's the the other thing to watch. And so, in terms of once you get to that provider, you want someone who's experienced, you want somebody that does it every day, you know, you want somebody that's done a lot of cases in the past. And in my instance, you know, I've done over 4,000 cases, and I do it and deal with it every day. And so my team is is trained, our systems and logistics are are very accurate so that we give you good service, and then we make it convenient for you in terms of having uh nighttime hours and early hours if you need if you need that. And then another way to determine your provider is to find out what their standing is with Invisalign. They have different standings, they have gold, they have platinum, they have diamond, they have silver, and then they have diamond plus. And diamond and diamond plus are the most experienced providers because they do the most cases. And in my case, I'm a Diamond Plus provider, and so I do over 400 cases a year, and so we know what we're doing and we know how to make sure your cases turn out the best they can.
SPEAKER_02And how can patients find out what kind of standing the doctor has?
SPEAKER_01On the Invisalign website, they have a doctor locator, and in that doctor locator, it will tell you their standing. I see. But another way to find out about your doctor is to look at the reviews. You know, I do that all the time, and most people do, but reviews are really telling. And so, are there people on their on their website saying, hey, I had a great experience with Invisalign? Hey, this so-and-so really helped me when I lost my tray, uh, things like that. And you want to have positive reviews about Invisalign.
SPEAKER_02And then kind of to add on to that, you could also go onto Instagram. I feel like Instagram or the website or pictures of before and afters can really show you what Invisalign that the provider has done can do for you. For example, in my case, I had a lot of crowding, so I wanted to see if there were different crowding cases that Dr. Esham had done and to know that he could fix my teeth and make them straighter. So I think if you go on Instagram or their website, you could definitely see so many before and afters and see if there's kind of like a case like yours, and then determine whether that Invisalign providers for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, and that's great. And then the the the last thing uh that I want you to look for when you're looking for Invisalign and avoiding cheap providers, is you want to look at how the doctor talks to you about your case. So, you know, sure someone can make your teeth straight, and sure someone can make your teeth fit together well, but are they gonna make your smile look good at the end? And I think that's really where a lot of doctors miss the boat is that you want to have a great, you know, you're going to invisign to get straight teeth, but really what you're asking for is a nice smile. Yeah, and so you want somebody that's gonna do what we call a smile design, so they're thinking about your smile first, making sure your upper teeth are in the right place and straight and looking good, and then making the lower teeth fit those so that you have straight teeth, you have teeth that fit together, and you have a third dimension, a great smile. And so here in our office, we think about the smile first because we know we can make the teeth straight, we know we can make the teeth fit together, but we want that smile to fit perfectly within their lips, so when that person expresses themselves in a happy way, you just see beautiful teeth. And so having a smile design along with your invisalign, I think, is really important.
SPEAKER_02So, when you go over smile design with your patients, what do you usually talk about like to make them know that we are looking at their smile and not just the straightness of their teeth?
The Importance of Smile Design
SPEAKER_01Well, there's kind of two main things that we go over when we do our Invisalign consultations, and one is we want to look where the two most important teeth in the person's smiles are, and we want to put them in the right place for a great beginning smile. So the upper two front teeth are the most important teeth in your smile. So we want to imagine them and put them in the right place first, and then build the smile around that symmetrically and nice and wide. And so, what a lot of doctors miss is they don't think about where the upper two front teeth are, and then when they build the smile going backwards to get a nice, full, broad smile, you want to make sure it has width, and the width is very, very important. But if there's two things to look for, it's where those two front teeth are and how broad is your smile going to be.
SPEAKER_02I see. What do you think is another thing that's super important to discuss with patients when they go through invisalign, especially towards the end of their treatment?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, in the beginning of their treatment, you should look at the teeth and see whether they're chipped or stained or not real good looking or maybe dark, and let the patient know as you do invisalign and you get your teeth straighter, those chips are gonna be there at the very end. And so you want someone that's gonna tell you what you might need at the end of your invisalign treatment. Invisalign is gonna save you from having to get porcelain veneers, but if your teeth are chipped, you're gonna need some kind of bonding or biochar treatment on the teeth at the end. And so you want to know if they're chipped, and then you're gonna want to know if there's a little thing called a dark triangle that might show up on your teeth after they're straight. And so when your teeth are overlapped and then they're made straight, a lot of times they're a little dark triangle between the teeth that might look like a little piece of pepper that's stuck between them. And then again, you want to know if you're gonna have those because they are inevitable. It doesn't matter how experienced a provider you are, they they will be there, and then you want to have a great way to fix it. And in our office, we use bioclear dark triangle treatment to fix the dark triangle. So you want to know that at the beginning so that you know what to expect, and then at the end, revisit it, check it with the doctor, and then uh talk to them about doing the little ideal uh idealizations of your smile. So thanks for bringing that up, Sabrina.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, of course. We always want to avoid that post-invisalign depression, right?
SPEAKER_01Right, always say yeah, post-invisalign disappointment. Disappointment. That's PID, post-invisalign disappointment. And um knowing everything up front avoids that. And so there's so many people that got their teeth straight, and then they have triangles and chip teeth, and they go, God, my smile still doesn't look good. And then you have to tell them there's some treatment that needs to be done, and then they're disappointed, so that's why it's called post-invisalign disappointment. So thank you, Sabrina, for bringing that up.
SPEAKER_02And we want to avoid that as
Best Cases for Invisalign
SPEAKER_02always, and then so moving from there, what kind of cases can invisalign treat? And you know, I know there's so many different types of people with so many different types of teeth, and I feel like a lot of times people are like, I don't know if invisalign is strong enough or good enough to fix my teeth, um, and whether I should just use normal brackets and orthodontics or if I should go to Invisalign. So, could you maybe possibly go over different cases that you see and that Invisign can fix?
SPEAKER_01Happy to, Sabrina, and a great question. So, you know, Invisalign can fix crowding, Invisalign can fix spaces, Invisalign can improve overbite, and Visaline can improve underbite. And um, but what Invisalign isn't great for, and I'll be honest with with with you about this, and it's important to know, it's not great at moving molars. So if you have um trouble with your molars, or your molars are tilted, or um we have a way where you know the molars are set back, so you have kind of a what we call a class cube, and you have a bunch of overbite, or you're way forward and you have an underbite, then Invisalign's not gonna move the molars, at least, not in my opinion. It doesn't move them very predictably, and so you can move the other ten teeth in front of those molars and make them all look better and make the bite better, but you're never gonna move those molars backwards and forwards unless you're a young person in your early teens.
SPEAKER_02I see.
SPEAKER_01So there are orthodontists that try to move molars within bis line, but you're gonna get mostly tilting or tipping, you're not gonna get bodily movement of the molar forward and back. And so I've learned the hard way in trying to move molars, and it just doesn't do it predictably. So very, very seldom do I move molars anymore. And if I am gonna move a molar, I'll move all the other teeth first and then just move that one molar as the only movement that's happening in that patient's mouth. So so that's important to understand, but it can't fix crowding, can't fix uh all those other things and make it better, it's just not gonna move your molars.
SPEAKER_03Got it.
SPEAKER_01So, um, what other thoughts do we have for this? You want to go over some cases?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would love to go see some cases. I'm sure the patients would like that as well.
SPEAKER_01So now you should be able if you you should be able to see some of our Invisalign cases on your screen. And um, this patient is one of my favorite patients, and um, her name is Tanya, and she is the most lovely girl, uh, had the most beautiful hair, beautiful eyes, beautiful eyebrows, great lips, but she just didn't have the teeth that match the rest of her. And so she is a crowding case, and then we not only fixed her crowding, but we fixed the width of her smile, so you can kind of see how how she looked before, and then how full her smile is. And so that's what we do here, and that's what you want from your Invisalign provider is something that somebody that thinks about the smile while you're doing Invisalign. And to give you an idea of her crowding, you can see how much crowding she had had here down here, and how we made it straight, and we we did it with no tooth extraction at all. And she was done in in less than a year.
SPEAKER_03Oh wow, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but beautiful, nice full smile, beautiful young lady, and her case turned out great. And then the other thing that Invisalign fixes is a crossbite. If you notice when this person bites down, his lateral incisor, his side front tooth, was behind his lowers. And that does a lot of damage to your teeth, and that actually can hurt your jaw joint over time. And so we took this tooth with Invisalign, flipped it back out, and then made the teeth straight. And you can see the little indent from where he had worn the tooth because it had been behind for so long. And then with this person, we really improved his smile and improved his confidence and his performance. Life because he was a PhD student and was going to present his thesis to a group of faculty, and he wanted to look the best he can and not look like you know he was not very well educated, and he was educated very well. So that's the reason why he did his invisal line. And here's a case where the person had an underbite, a young person, if I remember, and she was not that confident about smiling because of her situation here. And so we took these front teeth and we brought them up and over and took the lower teeth and pushed them back, and we're able to give her a much better smile and a lot more confidence because you know she was a senior in high school, and you know how that could be.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01So I was really, really happy we can we can help her. But Invisalign not only gives you better looking teeth, it gives you healthier teeth, as you could see with these cross bites, these teeth are not going to chip and wear down prematurely or anything like that, because there's a nice uh compatible bite. And then this person was a professional in the biotech industry, and again, he did presentations and so forth, and he wanted to look professional, he wanted to look educated, he had overbite, and he had spacing, and so we uh we fixed his overbite and his gaps. So Invisalign can can do some amazing things, but it's very important for you to um to pay attention to who your provider is because it's not Invisalign, it's not Smile Direct Club, it's not ClaireCorrect, it's the doctor that does it and the doctor that understands the concept of getting you not only straight teeth, but a great smile. So that's that's an important thing for all of our listeners to understand.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I feel like the takeaway is that not all Invisalign is equal, and you do get what you pay for, right?
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yeah, and so when you look for a cheap Invisalign or cheap clear liners, you're not gonna get a great end product. And it's a lot of time you spend with those trays in your mouth, it's a lot of months that they have to be there. You just want to make sure you get it done correctly so that you're not there for years or you're not, as Sabrina brought up, have some kind of post-invisalign disappointment.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And so we want you all to avoid that PID. So make sure you do your research on the doctor, make sure, like read their reviews, see what standing they have on Invisalign. Because you really this is an investment for yourself and for your confidence, and this is supposed to help you and not make you sad at the end of the whole process. So I think the takeaway is just make sure you do your research and know that not all different Invisaligners are the same. Um, and any last words from you, Dr. Hashem?
SPEAKER_01Nope, that's it. I we just want you to have a great smile, a healthy mouth, and get it in the most efficient way possible. And so I hope this information helped the audience today.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed learning the dirty secrets about Invisalign. Maybe we might continue this dirty secrets series if you guys have any other suggestions. But thank you for tuning in to Getting Your Dream Smile with Cosmetic Dentistry. Please be sure to subscribe to our podcast for any notifications on future episodes. Um, and click the link in the description and fill out the form if you have any questions on your own smile. You can also scan the QR code on YouTube, send a picture of your smile to us, and we'll talk about it on the podcast. And you know, you get featured and your smile is out there, and we get to talk about it, and Dr. Esham gets reviewed. So it's great for everyone. But other than that, thank you all for listening and we'll see you guys soon.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Sabrina. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Bye.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for tuning in to Getting Your Dream Smile with Cosmetic Dentistry with Dr. David Esham. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast to be notified about future episodes. Click the link in the description to fill out a form if you have any questions on cosmetic dentistry or your smile that you want us to answer. See you next episode.